Monday, 13 May 2013

Shut down by the weather .... again!

After our very successful tour in Switzerland the four of us all headed back to the climbing and skiing mecca of Chamonix - home of Mont Blanc, which was Mike's objective on skis.  Paul, John and I, just wanted to climb!  We left our skis at the van and made two attempts to climb Supercouloir (ED2).  Unfortunately our first attempt failed at the lift station; due to technical problems the lift didn't leave until 9.30am.  This was not quite enough time for us to complete our objective.  So we waited and then decided to head up and bivi on the mountain.  This meant a 3am start, giving us plenty of time to climb the route.  On arrival, we opted for the Gervasutti start (ED1) which is a few pitches of rock climbing.  After one and a half pitches, none of us had any feeling in our fingers. The winds were strong, spindrift and mini avalanches were pouring down our intended route....It wasn't looking good! After lots of humming and hawing, we decided to call it a day and head back to the bivi hut, where we found Mike who had also bailed off his Mont Blanc summit attempt.  Another time hopefully!

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